The slander suit brought by the Ijevan Municipality against the “Investigative Journalists” NGO continued today in the Kentron and Nork-Marash District Court, Judge Ruben Apenyan presiding.

Today the defense team made a motion to subpoena Ijevan Mayor Varuzhan Nersisyan and have him take the witness stand.

Gevorg Davtyan, the lawyer for the plaintiff, argued against the motion, noting that he represented the mayor’s position on the matter and that this should suffice.

“A long time has passed since this case has been heard and the defense has continuously presented such motions which have been overturned,” stated Mr. Davtyan, adding that only when there were questions that he couldn’t answer personally should the court decide whether or not to call the mayor to testify. “In other words the defense still doesn’t know what answers it will receive but it has previously decided to present such motions,” he noted.

“But all you can do is express the position of the mayor. You can’t directly testify on his behalf,” observed Judge Apinyan and sustained the motion in the name of “arriving at a correct conclusion”.

Then Mr. Davtyan motioned the court that Voskan Sargsyan, “Hetq’s” correspondent in Noyemberyan also be called in to court as a third party since it was his article that smeared the good name of the mayor.

“Hetq’s” editor Edik Baghdasaryan presented an argument that, “given that in the final analysis the responsibility for the published article rests with me I don’t see the need to call in the reporter.”

The court overturned the argument. Furthermore, the “Aravot” newspaper was also included in the case as a defendant since Mr. Sargsyan’s article was also reprinted in that paper as well.

Let us remind readers that the Ijevan Municipality is demanding that the court, “obligate the Investigative Journalists, NGO to retract the baseless statements made regarding the Ijevan Minicipality and the reports that have smeared the good name, honor and reputation of Ijevan Mayor Varuzhan Nersisyan and to demand that the Investigative Journalists, NGO pay an amount of 930,000 drams as redress for the amount allocated from the Ijevan municipal budget for legal fees to file suit against the Investigative Journalists, NGO.